Wethersfield To Install School Bus Cameras

Students at the Hanmer Elementary School in Wethersfield are shown how to exit a school bus aspart of National School Bus Safety Week.

Students at the Hanmer Elementary School in Wethersfield are shown how to exit a school bus aspart of National School Bus Safety Week. (MICHAEL McANDREWS | mmcandrews@courant.com)

CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN, Special to The Courant

The town has a message for motorists who fail to stop for on- or offloading school buses: smile.

Starting soon, some town school buses will be outfitted with cameras to catch drivers who break the law by blowing past stopped buses. Photos of offenders will be forwarded to police, who will assess a state-mandated $450 fine.

"Stopping for a school bus is one of those things you're taught in Driver's Ed 101," Town Manager Jeff Bridges said. "It's surprising how many times this actually happens."

The board of education and the police department have grown concerned by the number of vehicles violating the law and asked the town council to find a solution, Bridges said.

The council responded this week by voting unanimously to hire Redflex Student Guardian, a company that installs and operates cameras on school buses to catch bus passers.

The company will charge the town nothing, instead collecting $234 of the fine assessed on motorists. After court costs, taxpayers will receive $125 of each ticket.

"It certainly is something worth pursuing," Mayor Donna Hemmann said. "There have been several complaints form parents about cars passing buses. This offers some sort of mechanism to act upon it. And the fact that it doesn't cost the town anything, that's a big thing."

Bus drivers are typically too preoccupied watching out for children to record the license plates of vehicles that shoot past, Hemmann said.

"Their eyes are on the children, trying to get them off the bus or on the bus," she said.

Hemmann and Bridges didn't have figures on the number of drivers who pass stopped buses in Wethersfield.

Redflex, however, provided data showing the violation is surprisingly frequent in other Connecticut towns where they have cameras.

In New Britain, for example, an average of one vehicle a day drives past a stopped bus, according to a presentation Redflex provided the council. The frequency is almost as high in Bristol, while in Hamden the average is 1.4 cars a day, the presentation said.

Bridges said that the cameras would only be on some town school buses. Redflex will determine the routes where violations are most likely and install the cameras on those buses, he said. The cameras are easily moved if patterns change, he said.

Bridges said he expects the cameras to be installed and operating "pretty quick."